A very pretty interface to display a common basic test we can all use from time to time, speedtest.net locates a suitable server near you (it's smart enough to figure out where you are) and then runs a ping, download speed and upload speed test. Unusually, you can use the same test, at the same site, anywhere in the world.

I'm on a 6Mbit connection in the SF bay area with SBC Global, which is now AT&T but powered by Yahoo!, if you can follow that. So my result, at 5.15Mbit wasn't too shabby and actually not as bad as I'd expected. My upload speed was 630k which is around 100k below optimal. Ping speed was recorded as 17ms.

Over at speakeasy.net (http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/), where I usually run this test, the result was exactly the same. Though the interface at speedtest.net is slicker, the speakeasy interface is clearer, less fussy. Other than that, either test is fine.

The first difference with speedtest.net is that if you like, you can see the best broadband speeds from anywhere in the world, and discover that even in the backwoods of eastern Europe they get better DSL speeds than I do here, at the cutting edge of web technology. Oh well. The weather's better here, though.

The second difference, and actually way the most interesting one, I didn't realize until I came back to the site some time later and discovered by idly fiddling with the graphics that you can select any destination in the world to run your speed test to and from. In other words, you can pick, say, Ekaterinburg in Russia (ping 266ms) and run the test from California to there and back. This is very, very cool and my rating went up a point straight away. If you have any geek cred at all you'll be playing with this one for a while.

Also see http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.pingtest.net